Two years ago, former U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak made political history when, as an unendorsed Democratic candidate, he defeated 30-year incumbent Arlen Specter in the primary for the U.S. Senate.

The 60-year-old Edgmont resident will never forget the concession call from his opponent, who had returned to the Democratic Party after 45 years as a moderate Republican.

"He said, 'Congratulations, Joe. I will be out there supporting you,' and I thought that was the mark of a man ... a good man," said Sestak, who went on to lose the 2010 Senate race by 2 percentage points to Republican Pat Toomey.

On Sunday, Sestak was among several Delaware County politicians from both sides of the aisle mourning the loss of Pennsylvania's longest-serving U.S. senator.

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"Regardless of one's views of his politics, it is undeniable that he was an individual of great determination, drive and courage, characteristics he exhibited in his battles against several terminal illness," said Delaware County Republican Party Chairman Andrew Reilly.

Specter died at age 82 Sunday at his Philadelphia home from complications of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

"He set a standard for Pennsylvania that I'm not sure will ever be met in accomplishing results that help Pennsylvania families," said Sestak, a retired Navy vice admiral who is now teaching at Cheyney University in Thornbury and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

He noted that his own family benefited from Specter's advocacy for increased federal funding for health care including stem-cell, Alzheimer's disease and cancer research. When Sestak's daughter, Alex, was stricken with brain cancer at age 4, she had access to an experimental treatment at the National Institutes of Health, which may have not been otherwise available if not for Specter's efforts when he was a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

"She's now 11 going on 22," said Sestak.

Specter's support of medical initiatives helped hospitals, such as the University of Pennsylvania, emerge as major cancer treatment institutions, noted Republican Patrick Meehan, who succeeded Sestak as representative of the 7th Congressional District and served as Specter's special counsel from 1991 to 1994.

"That's why I thought it was ironic that cancer took him down," said the 56-year-old Upper Darby resident, who is currently running for a second term against Democrat George Badey of Radnor.

In recent years, Specter survived cardiac arrest and bypass surgery, a brain tumor and Hodgkin's disease. He announced he was battling non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in late August.

"I wrote him a letter this summer when I heard he was diagnosed with cancer: 'I have no doubt once again as a warrior you will overcome this,'" said Sestak, who last saw Specter in January at the funeral for former Upper Darby Republican Party Chairman John McNichol.

State Rep. Nick Miccarelli, R-162, of Ridley Park, recalled last seeing Specter at a Philadelphia Phillies baseball game on May 1, 2011, the night President Obama announced the execution of notorious international terrorist Osama bin Laden by an elite Navy SEALS team in Pakistan.

"Arlen was chanting with Mets fans and Phillies fans. They were chanting, 'USA! USA!' He said it with vigor. He still looked like he had some fight," recalled Miccarelli, who admired Specter's ability to quote Senate bills "by chapter and verse."

The 30-year-old state representative was chairman of the Pennsylvania College Republicans when he first met Specter, who, in 2008, traveled to the International Association of Machinists Local 1776 Union Hall in Tinicum to endorse Miccarelli during his first campaign.

"He remembered my entire resume just off the top of his head. He was the smartest man in the room," said Miccarelli, who has been endorsed by both Republicans and Democrats in his campaign for a third term.

Specter's ability to work with both parties, and his independence in bucking his own party when he disagreed with its policies, made him part of a now almost extinct breed of moderate Republicans, Swarthmore College Political Science Professor Carol Nackenoff.

"During (President) Reagan's second term, Specter displeased many of his Republican colleagues by voting against the confirmation of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. Twenty years later, he again displeased Republican colleagues by voting in favor of President Obama's economic stimulus plan," said Nackenoff.

Noted Miccarelli, "He was a consensus-builder, which we need to have more of."

In his three years as Specter's special counsel, Meehan witnessed firsthand Specter's ability to work with fellow legislators, regardless of political party.

"I will remember him as a mentor who was a real taskmaster, but also who taught me how to really engage in problems our constituents face. I'd observe how he would attack a situation with thorough preparation and how to build consensus for finding solutions," said Meehan.

He noted that as a former Philadelphia district attorney, Specter could also see both sides of the coin when it came to victims, as well as their assailants who may have been driven to crime by addictions or other issues.

"His strength as a law-and-order legislator allowed him to be sensitive to the value of treatment to prevent future crime," said Meehan, himself a former Delaware County district attorney and U.S. attorney.

Meehan also served as manager for Specter's re-election campaign in 1992 on the heels of backlash against the senator for his interrogation of law professor Anita Hill when she was called to testify about alleged sexual harassment by now-Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas before the Senate Judiciary Committee during Thomas' confirmation hearings. On the campaign trail, he observed Specter at town hall meetings listening to women talk about how sexual harassment could occur in an employment setting.

"It was an educational, eye-opening experience for him and many other politicians. He faced it head-on and didn't run from it. It contributed to his ability to survive that (election) cycle when some others didn't," said Meehan.

Specter barely won that year with 48.9 percent of the vote, as compared to 46.55 percent gleaned by Democrat Lynn Yeakel of Radnor.

Other Delaware County residents who attempted to unseat Specter during his 30 years in the Senate included former state Rep. Stephen Freind, R-166, of Haverford, who won only 34.92 percent of the vote to Specter's 65.08 percent in the 1992 primary.

The Rev. Bob Edgar, a Methodist minister and Democrat from Springfield who represented the 7th Congressional District from 1975 until 1987, won 42.87 percent of the vote as compared to Specter's 56.44 percent when he tried to unseat the senator in 1986. Edgar is now president of Common Cause, a national, nonpartisan citizens lobby working for election reform and government accountability.

Sestak is the only politician to hold the distinction of defeating Specter during his 30 years in the U.S. Senate and, said Sestak, the senior senator made it a vigorous fight because he worked so hard.

"He really made you exceed your grasp to match him," said the former congressman. "I really thought it was great to be in the arena against the very best of politicians and public servants that Pennsylvania ever had."